Desperate to get away from our hotel, we drove across the southern portion of Chios, exploring the villages that we found. For much of its history, Chios was part of the Byzantine empire. As a result, its villages looked much different from those in the Cyclades. They were walled and set in the middle of open areas, and rather than several small churches, each village had one larger church at its center.

Pyrgi is no doubt the most photographed village on Chios. Unlike all of the other villages (for reasons that still aren't clear to me), the buildings in Pyrgi are covered with ornate carvings. It was often beautiful, if a bit surreal.

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Greece 1996

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